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The talents who are helping us make #BloodNormal

How many times have we seen Homeland’s Carrie Mathison nip to the loo to change her sanitary towel, or Serena and Blair discuss the nightmare of leaking on a brand new pair of jeans in their 5 years on Gossip Girl?

Periods are a fact of life, but they’re often invisible in films and TV. In a bid to change this, we’re joining forces with people from all over the world — people who hold a strong position in pop culture and who are as passionate as we are about calling time on period taboos.

Here’s a deeper look into who they are, what they do, and how they're helping us to bring periods out of the corner and into the conversation:

DESSÙ

DESSÙ is a French lingerie company that believes women should find their own definition of femininity far from stereotypes or clichés. For our collaboration, their team created a unique pair of designer underwear exquisitely embroidered by Anaïs Albar. It’s a visual tribute to periods – a homage that helps normalise and integrate periods into our culture. A limited edition of these will be on sale through Dessù's website.

Saffron Herndon

Saffron is a teenage American stand-up comedian who has been writing and performing since she was 7 years old. According to the Huffington Post, she has “better material and command of the stage than humans three times her age” and we’re inclined to agree. We asked Saffron to write some period jokes and include them in her stand-up routine. She helped normalise periods by exploring the topic with her quick wit and deft humour. “Everyone gets zits and they can bleed, so if people don’t get freaked out by zit blood, why would they get freaked out by period blood! It's just blood”, she says.

Julian Hernandez

Julian is a menswear influencer and stylist from Stockholm, who’s collaborated with major brands and was crowned 'Male Style Icon' by Zalando. In our film, we simply see him buying a pack of pads in a supermarket. Julian’s support for women and the normalisation of periods plays an influential role in our campaign. He’s one of the many men who are helping to open up the conversation and who more importantly, are not making a big deal out of something that happens to women all over the world.

Victo Ngai

Victo is a multi-awarded US-based illustrator from Hong Kong. She is a Forbes 30 Under honouree and contributes to the New York Times, NBC, DreamWorks, and Apple. For our campaign, she has created a short graphic novel about a female superhero who’s pretty hardcore - she kicks ass and fights werewolves while also happening to be on her period. In our film, we see a close-up of the Victo's work featuring the message “no blood should hold us back”.

Victoire Dauxerre

Victoire is a renowned French actress, feminist activist and author of Size Zero, a book about anorexia. She’s well-known for calling out the fashion industry’s unrealistic expectations for women’s bodies. Battling anorexia and bulimia whilst modelling, she also stopped getting her period. In our film, she plays a French woman at a dinner party who unapologetically shouts across the table to her friend, “have you got a pad?”.

Among our other talented collaborators are:

Lorena Andrea, a Colombian actress and sports model who in our film, wears a red outfit with “Sangro. No necesito tu aprobacion” (“I bleed. I don’t need your approval.”) written on it.

Neil Gaiman, a multi-awarded English author whose notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.

Dominique Christina, an American-born writer, performer, educator, and activist who specialises in spoken word poetry. An excerpt from her poem about periods was used in our film.

Lotta Schelin, a Swedish football captain who has represented her country in the UEFA Women’s Championship, the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and the Olympic Football Tournaments.

With the help of these strong voices, we strive to achieve an accurate representation of periods in our pop culture. And remember – if you’re with us, don’t forget to share our campaign.

Essity is a leading global hygiene and health company that develops, produces and sells Personal Care (Baby Care, Feminine Care, Incontinence Products and Medical Solutions), Consumer Tissue and Professional Hygiene products and solutions. Our vision is; Dedicated to improving well-being through leading hygiene and health solutions. Sales are conducted in approximately 150 countries under many strong brands, including the leading global brands TENA and Tork, and other brands, such as Leukoplast, Libero, Libresse, Lotus, Nosotras, Saba, Tempo, Vinda and Zewa. Essity has about 48,000 employees and net sales in 2016 amounted to approximately SEK 101bn (EUR 10.7bn). The business operations are based on a sustainable business model with focus on value creation for people and nature. The company has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. Essity used to be part of the SCA Group. More information at www.essity.com.